Freezers - Upright or Chest?

[Tom_From_NJ]

We are interested in getting a freezer and have been reviewing what is available and it comes down to a chest or upright type. The chest type is manual defrost only while the upright you have a choice of either manual or frost free. I understand both have advantages and disadvantages i.e. the manual defrost is a pain to do but the frostfree have more freezer burn?? What do you have? Have you had both types, chest and upright, which would you buy again?

Thanks

Tom

[rlw]

I'd recommend the upright. Smaller footprint and easier to get items in and out of.

[Stoneheartfarm]

Chest type. Why? Cold air drops. Open the door on the upright and all the air inside cycles. Open the door on the chest type, and only some of the air cycles.

Other than that. Personal choice.

Steve

[beenthere]

There are good answers on TBN to this same question. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[MRB]

My wife favors the upright, she is petite, 5'1". The chest type will not allow her to get to the bottom and she almost falls in head first trying to reach something. Just something to consider.

[wingnut]

We now have an upright because it takes less space and my wife finds it easier to use. If I had my druthers, we'd be using chest freezers. I left 2 back in Alberta (too much trouble to get them out of the basement) ... used one for meats and one for "other stuff" - bread, veggies, etc ... to avoid flavor transfer.
Upright freezers make it easier to see the stuff ... but store half as much as a comperable chest. Also use a lot more electricity (as others have noted, they lose the cold air immediately on opening the door). You hear the compressor kick on immediately after closing the door, unlike chests.

[Justaplain]

If you like good old fashion pot luck stew, go with the chest type. Two or three times a year you can dig down to the bottom and come up with all kinds of stuff you forgot you bought. bcs [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[MDSteve]

I have both. The chest is for bait and deer meat and the upright my wife keeps our side of beef in. As others said she didn't like leaning in to get stuff in the bottom of the chest freezer. It doesn't bother me because I usually keep 4 or 5 buckets of chum at the bottom so I usually don't loose too many things.

Steve

[Pat]

I saw a multi-door upright freezer on one of the home improvement shows. This limits the loss of cold when opening a door.

I also saw a auto defrost chest style. OOPS, there go a couple myths...

With wire baskets for organizing (and a step stool for shorties) chest types aren't so dificult to use and are way ahead on energy consumption. Even if a door gasket leaks a little it isn't a disaster.

Do mind the energy tag! There is a wide range of energy efficiencies out there. A buddy replaced an old chest freezer with a new one and has averaged $50 less per month on his electric bill.

If cost is not an issue and ultimate storage time is not important, then uprights win the convenience contest by somewhere between a thin margin to a landslide depending on which chest is compared to which upright.

If you are in an area where power outages are a factor and you don't have an automatic starting backup generator with automatic cut over switch then the chest is likely a better choice.

I'll be putting a medium sized chest in my new house and my mom is getting a small chest style to put in the garage. She has had several of both styles in the past and will NOT have an upright again but that is just an opinionated woman in her mid eighties.

Best of luck to you and don't forget "Consumer's Reports" as a sorce of good unbiased product information.

Pat

[herbenus]

Well I would agree that you can get more in a chest. But you might not know it when you look in our upright. My wife has it pretty packed. And I can see the argument that you lose less cold in a chest when you open it. But if you have to dig down to the bottom then you just might have it open longer while your stacking food on the floor. Maybe offsets it a little. But any rate, our decision on an upright was based mostly on a shortage of floorspace. Both have their pros and cons.